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Goofy's Wednesday Novels
Goofy's Wednesday Novels, or Wednesdays at Goofy's (Original Italian title: I mercoledi di Pippo - all English titles are unofficial translations) is a series of 33 stories, published from 1993 to 2006 in Topolino, all written by Rudy Salvagnini and drawn by various Italian "star" artists (the main artist being Lino Gorlero). History The story that kickstarted the series was originally intended as a standalone episode. Pippo e il giallo a premi shows Goofy participating in a fiction contest and reading his work to Mickey before the winners are being announced. Although it is meant to be a crime story, Goofy manages to make it quite weird and in the end, he gets a prize specifically invented for him (best criminal comedy). The artist, Lino Gorlero, was so impressed by the story, that he called Rudy Salvagnini (the two had not spoken to each other at all before) and suggested the idea turned into a regular series, with Goofy tackling various literary subjects and genres in his own inimitable fashion. Basically the format from now on is always the same - Goofy writes a novel and reads it to Mickey. In the story, usually Goofy is the hero and Mickey his incompetent sidekick. There are three exceptions to the rule (see below). Goofy's plots often defy logic and Mickey often has complaints, but usually the changed version is worse than the original one! This reversal of roles, both in the sense that Goofy sees himself as the hero and seeing that he is the creator of the story, proved to be popular enough to keep interested in the series sustained for years. It is often quoted as an example how you can use Mickey in a different role than "good guy who always wins". Artists All 33 episodes (originally published from 1993 to 2006, recently re-published in Italy in the Legendary Collection) were written by Rudy Salvagnini, the art was provided by various Italian star artists (no less than 13 stories were drawn by Lino Gorlero, other artists: Silvio Camboni x 3, Massimo De Vita x 3, Giuseppe Dalla Santa x 3, Alessandro Perina x 2, Roberto Vian x 2, Giorgio Di Vita x 1, Lara Molinari x 1, Alessandro Gottardo x 1, Andrea Ferraris x 1, Fabio Celoni x 1, Lorenzo Pastrovicchio x 1, Marco Mazzarello x 1) According to Rudy Salvagnini, one story was never published. Notable facts Some of the episodes start out with really crazy introductions. There are two cases where we actually first see Mickey's nightmare before he wakes up and realizes he's at Goofy's house (in one case consisting of multiple Goofys and Mickeys coming from all kinds of places), sometimes Mickey tries to hide from having to listen to Goofy's newest novel (Goofy goes to Mickey's house and finds him in the icebox; Mickey hides in Minnie's house but gets caught somewhat inadvertently), once Goofy is seemingly not at home and once he says the novel wasn't finished but he had forgotten to inform Mickey… In "Ex-Files", Mickey is not the hero's sidekick, but appears in various roles as a vampire, monster, android or werewolf. Goofy's agent partner in the story is Clarabelle. In "Flambéd Hearts", Goofy reads the story to Minnie instead of Mickey because it's a love story more aimed at a female audience (and Minnie is so fascinated by Goofy's writing that she calls Mickey in the night to tell him the entire story). "Mickey's Revenge" circles around Mickey trying to write a more logical story as a reaction to Goofy's sci-fi nonsense while Goofy keeps complaining about missing suspense and suggests to add aliens to the plot. Although it's a characteristic feature of the series that Goofy keeps re-writing elements while telling the story, the last episode "Wings in Flames" takes things to an extreme as the story keeps changing its course, to the point that writer Rudy Salvagnini might have parodied himself... "Con 'losso di Rodi" means "With the Bone of Rhodes", but it's actually a wordplay on "Colosso di Rodi" (The Colossus of Rhodes). The German Version solved this issue by calling the story "Der Gordische Knochen" (The Gordian Bone), which in turns plays on "Der Gordische Knoten" (The Gordian Knot). In order to find an English equivalent, one would have to look for phrases from ancient times that can be used with the word "bone" replacing something similar-sounding… The series at INDUCKS Rudy Salvagnini about the series and its genesis (Google Translate) Category:Goofy stories Category:Comic Stories